Florida solo Rick Georges has found it difficult to find voice-recognition software that works for him, as he notes on his blog FutureLawyer. Recently, he set out like a brave knight of the legal roundtable to conquer the dragon of voice-recognition systems, Dragon Naturally Speaking 9. As he explains in an article published yesterday on Law.com, Can St. Georges Slay the Dragon?, his quest was a success, but not until he learned that Dragon requires much more than the minimum processing power its manufacturer, Nuance Communications, recommends.

"Then, in a burst of insight, and a renewed sense of destiny, I upgraded my arsenal. I purchased a Dell Latitude D620, a powerful machine that carried a 1.67 Gigahertz processor, with Duo Core processing. ... While it was two pounds heavier than my previous weapon, I vowed to carry it into battle, a battle that I vowed to win, or sacrifice everything."

Georges also had to learn not to expect support in his quest from Nuance:

"Sir Nuance hated the poor supplicants who came to him for help. He made them wait for hours at the cave's entrance, put them on hold for hours more, and sent dim-witted emissaries to spout cryptic messages."

But once powered up and resigned to facing the Dragon alone, without support to back him up, Georges was happy with the results:

"Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 is a competent dictation system, and is 99.5 percent accurate right out of the box. While I don't use it regularly, it is great for dictating long text, such as correspondence or rough draft pleadings. If you have a competent secretary or paralegal, it will be a real work saver for them if you dictate a rough draft, and shoot it to them over the network. Then, all they have to do is tweak it."

As for St. Georges, he continues on to fight other battles in the realm of legal technology.

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Lawyer Bravely Battles Voice Recognition

Florida solo Rick Georges has found it difficult to find voice-recognition software that works for him, as he notes on his blog FutureLawyer. Recently, he set out like a brave knight of the legal roundtable to conquer the dragon of voice-recognition systems, Dragon Naturally Speaking 9. As he explains in an article published yesterday on Law.com, Can St. Georges Slay the Dragon?, his quest was a success, but not until he learned that Dragon requires much more than the minimum processing power its manufacturer, Nuance Communications, recommends.

"Then, in a burst of insight, and a renewed sense of destiny, I upgraded my arsenal. I purchased a Dell Latitude D620, a powerful machine that carried a 1.67 Gigahertz processor, with Duo Core processing. ... While it was two pounds heavier than my previous weapon, I vowed to carry it into battle, a battle that I vowed to win, or sacrifice everything."

Georges also had to learn not to expect support in his quest from Nuance:

"Sir Nuance hated the poor supplicants who came to him for help. He made them wait for hours at the cave's entrance, put them on hold for hours more, and sent dim-witted emissaries to spout cryptic messages."

But once powered up and resigned to facing the Dragon alone, without support to back him up, Georges was happy with the results:

"Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 is a competent dictation system, and is 99.5 percent accurate right out of the box. While I don't use it regularly, it is great for dictating long text, such as correspondence or rough draft pleadings. If you have a competent secretary or paralegal, it will be a real work saver for them if you dictate a rough draft, and shoot it to them over the network. Then, all they have to do is tweak it."

As for St. Georges, he continues on to fight other battles in the realm of legal technology.